


It's Cold Out

by Cobbleopolis



Series: Violets and Fringe Jackets [2]
Category: Fargo (2014)
Genre: Child Numbers, Child Wrench, vague description of violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-26
Updated: 2014-09-26
Packaged: 2018-02-18 21:58:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2363552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cobbleopolis/pseuds/Cobbleopolis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bullies aren't the best thing to run into on the playground. Especially when you're the new kid and the class outsider.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Cold Out

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to upload this much sooner than I did but school started up and really limited my time to write. Hopefully uploads should be more regular from now on (at least for the next little bit).

           It had been about a month and a half since Wrench moved to Decorah, Iowa. He seemed to be doing well with the move. Although today was slightly different, today was the day that the school allowed all the children to come to school dressed up in costume in attempt to let the children celebrate Halloween. Numbers came to school dressed up as a cowboy as it was a hand-me-down from Number’s older brother and just so happened to be the only costume that fit him. But, much to Wrench’s embarrassment, he walked into class today in regular clothing, as he completely forgot about the event. At his old school, the only thing they did for Halloween was small decorations here and there around the school.

 

Wrench and Numbers were sitting around the corner of second grade hallway during recess, trying to escape the harsh winds of the approaching winter. Wrench was going over the alphabet in ASL with Numbers, who was actually making great progress over the course of only six weeks. He only knew a couple common words and he forgot them more often than not. But Numbers knew the alphabet fairly well and could finger spell the words he did not know or could not remember.

 

       Numbers was in the middle of trying to ask how to sign various school related words, to try and make giving Wrench the directions during class a bit easier, when a group of three relatively large kids walked up behind Wrench, and Numbers stopped signing mid-sentence. “Hey, nerd! What have we told you about coming to our area of the playground?” Numbers let out an audible sigh “Ian was cold and the wind kept blowing my notebook around, so we went around the corner to get out of the wind.”

“Is that so?” The largest of the kids shoved Wrench in the back of the head with his knee.

“Hey! Leave him alone!” Numbers quickly stood up and moved in between Wrench and the bullies.

The bully just scoffed and shoved Numbers to the ground; Numbers landed on his back, knocking the air out of him.

All three of the bullies surrounded Wrench, and Wrench looked up at the bully directly in front of him, slightly worried. The bully in front of Wrench said something that he couldn’t make out. All of a sudden, the two bullies behind Wrench pulled him by the arms, forcing him to stand up and come face-to-face with the now quite intimidating kid in front of him. Wrench glanced down at Numbers who was still on the ground, gasping for air and helpless. When Wrench looked back up at the kid, who was most likely talking to one of the kids holding him up, Wrench was only able to make a couple words out here and there, although the angle that the kid’s head was at and the position of the sun wasn’t helping Wrench in the slightest. Once the bully finished talking, he gestured in the opposite direction of the school. All of a sudden, Wrench was being shoved around by the two bullies holding him captive, and eventually, they had worked Wrench’s jacket off of him. Shoving Wrench to the ground, the two bullies, with Wrench’s jacket still in tow, ran over to the nearby fence where their apparent leader was now at, still out of sight of the teacher. Wrench saw the largest kid talking to the two who took his jacket; he could only make out a few small gestures here and there but couldn’t discern the meaning of any of them. Wrench knew that if he tried to do anything that the whole situation would turn out a lot worse than it needed to be.  

Looking over to his left, Wrench caught Numbers sitting up and was doing what Wrench could only assume was yelling. Numbers tried to get up and do something, but Wrench promptly caught his arm and when Numbers looked back, all he could see was Wrench looking up at him with what he could only call concern, stopping Numbers dead in his tracks. Wrench looked back at the scene in front of him and his heart sank when he saw his jacket being thrown far over the fence. The group of bullies trotted off to another area on the playground, most likely to terrorize someone else. Numbers could see the look of total desolation on Wrench’s face, because one of Wrench’s old friends got him jacket just before he moved. Numbers, slightly taken back by the recent events, immediately noticed that Wrench was starting to get cold and slightly shivering.  Shrugging off his fringe jacket, Numbers sat down next to Wrench, and set the jacket down in his friend’s lap. When Wrench looked over at Numbers with slight confusion, Numbers just smirked and slowly finger spelled “It might not be as warm but it’s better than nothing.”

“Won’t you be cold?” Wrench had to fingerspell most of it so Numbers could understand it.

“I’ll be fine,” Numbers smiled as he finger spelled “besides, I think you need it more than I do.”

“Are you sure? I’ll give it back to you after recess.”

Numbers just shook his head and slowly finger spelled “No, it’s ok. You keep it. That was your only jacket and I have one at home.”

“Really?”

Numbers only managed to nod his head before almost being tackled to the ground by the larger of the two boys.

When Wrench finally let go, he made sure Numbers was looking at him, “Are you sure you want me to keep the jacket?”

“Ya, besides, I think the jacket suits you.” Numbers knew his father was going to be livid, but it’s better than his best friend being cold.

 

 


End file.
